As I mentioned earlier, we recently left our house for a week, and headed to my Dad’s place for Spring Break. After we returned, it rained heavily for the next week, and come Yesterday, my yard looked like this…

It was rough; you don’t have to tell me. I couldn’t wait to get at it with the lawn mower. But just before I did, I decided to harvest some of my bountiful crop.

No, really. I served it up with dinner! I walked around and picked leaves from my dandelion plants, and then pulled a few of my wild onions. You see, we don’t treat our yard with weed killer, as the above photo attests, and so all our plants are safe to eat, providing they are edible plants, of course. Dandelions are edible, and of course wild onions are. Just the same, I did some research after I picked my salad.

According to Wild Man Steve, dandelions are not only safe, but also very good for you. I even came across a French recipe for Cream of Dandelion soup, and we all know how the French are about their food!

So here’s the dirt on dandelion picking…

Dandelion leaves are slightly bitter, like arugula, and as they age, they increase in bitterness until after the first frost. Since it’s spring here, I don’t have to worry about that. The leaves also taste better before they begin to flower, but are still palatable until that pesky white seed ball forms. The only issue with harvesting from your yard, assuming you don’t use any chemicals on your grass, is the imposters. Observe…

All the leaves shown came from my yard. All of them came from plants that have yellow flowers, and white, puffy seed balls. But, they are not all dandelions. Dandelions keep their leaves close to the ground, and don’t get very tall. Remember those knee-high weeds in my yard photo? Not dandelions. Dandelions also only sprout one flower per plant, at a time. So you see that plant above with the three flower buds? Not a dandelion. And finally, dandelion leaves are soft, and leafy. They aren’t hard, waxy, or spiny. If you see a plant with a yellow flower, and the leaves prick you, then pull it out, but throw it away. All the dandelion look-a-likes are thistles, and not the delicious kind of thistles, like artichokes. No, you don’t want to eat these. But the real dandelion leaves are tasty.

I turned mine into a salad, with a bit of oil, vinegar, and wild chives. I even added some pepperoncini and shaves of parmigian for a little kick.

So the next time someone says weeds, remember, it could just be a salad, waiting to happen.